


Sunny With a Chance of Pain

by windscryer



Series: Maja's Platonic VLD Week 2017 [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Caretaking, Female Pidge | Katie Holt, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Humans Are Weird, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Platonic Relationships, Platonic VLD Week, Sunburn, and fragile, my god how have they survived this long when brief exposure to sunlight hurts them???
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-27
Updated: 2017-02-27
Packaged: 2018-09-27 06:16:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9980021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/windscryer/pseuds/windscryer
Summary: A day of fun in the sun doesn’t come without a price when you’re the palest Paladin of Voltron. At least she’s got her friends to pamper her in her time of painfully burning need.





	

**Author's Note:**

> it took me like seven tries but i FINALLY found an idea i could do for the Platonic VLD Week Day 1: Sunlight/Moonlight. huzzah! \o/
> 
> also, bless lucy for being the best at titles even when she is freezing and tired. <3 u boo.

“Ughhhhhhhh.”

Allura paused in the doorway at the sound from Pidge, who was currently laying out flat on one of the couches. She was on her stomach and covered in damp washcloths that Lance was peeling up, dunking in a bowl of ice water, and reapplying. As each one came up, bright red skin dotted by a myriad of new brown spots was revealed.

“Is… everything all right here?” Allura asked carefully. She didn’t remember hearing of any injuries while they were out on the shore today.

“Oh hey, Allura,” Lance said. He squeezed another cloth and then laid it down over a patch in the middle of Pidge’s back. She flinched and shivered, then gave a sigh of relief. Lance just moved on to the one lower on her back and repeated the process.

“Pidge got a little too much sun out on the water,” he explained. “She’ll be fine, she’s just going to be kind of miserable for a few days.”

“Stupid sun,” Pidge grumbled. “Stupid—” She gasped as the freshly dampened cloth was laid down. “—UV rays. Stupid fair skin. Ugh,” she added, banging her head against the cushion.

She cursed and stopped after only the second strike, holding her head up. Allura could see it wasn’t as red as her back, but it was still quite pink and heavily dotted as well, both more concentrated over the bridge of her nose like Shiro’s scar. “Ow. I’m probably half freckle now,” she grumbled irritably.

Lance chuckled. “Yeah. But hey, you’ll probably get a tan out of this.”

Pidge snorted. “Or not. I just burn and peel back to dead fish pale except with more freckles. Lather, rinse, repeat. Freckles are as close as I get to a tan.”

Lance made a sound of sympathy.

“Hey, Coran thinks this might be close to aloe vera gel,” Hunk said, coming into the room at a jog.

“Oh God, I hope so,” Pidge said. Allura could see her fingers and toes flexing in a gesture she recognized as one that meant the Earth girl was hurting.

“You are in pain?” she asked, distressed as Lance caught the bottle Hunk tossed him and opened it, squirting a handful of the pale pink cream into his hand.

“Yeah,” Pidge said. “I mean, it’s a burn. Mostly a first-degree one, though I think the tops of my shoulders might have crossed over into a second-degree.”

“Mmm,” Lance hummed as he lifted a new cloth and started spreading the cream over her skin, “yeah, there are a few blisters there. I wonder if we can make some kind of sunscreen for next time.”

“If we can’t there might not be a next time,” Pidge groaned. Hunk sat next to her feet and began applying the cream to her calves.

“How is she doing?” Shiro asked as he and Keith entered. They were both still dressed in the casual clothing they’d worn for the excursion to the beach, but they were carrying a handful of water pouches each and trays with food on them.

“I hate the sun,” Pidge declared, flinching again as Lance applied more cream, “but whatever this is feels nice.”

Shiro arched an eyebrow and Lance said, “Altean aloe vera. Or something close to it, we hope.”

Shiro nodded, then crouched down next to Pidge and opened a water pouch. “Here, drink this. You’re probably dehydrated too. How’s your head?”

Her face screwed up. “Only hurts a little right now, but it will probably get worse too.”

“Keith?” Shiro asked and was passed a bottle of pain relievers.

“Can the pods not heal this injury?” Allura asked, though she was less worried now watching the other paladins take care of their teammate. They obviously knew what to do and weren’t too concerned, so even though it looked bad and sounded worse, it must not be that serious a problem.

“We asked,” Hunk said, “but Coran doesn’t think so since it’s pretty superficial.”

“It doesn’t _feel_ superficial,” Pidge grunted around her straw.

“Well next time we’ll have to either find some sunscreen or you’ll need more layers,” Shiro said, laying a gentle hand on her head to ruffle her hair.

“If you want to stay in the Castle, I’ll stay with you,” Keith offered.

Pidge gave him a small smile, ignoring Lance’s protests about how it didn’t count as team bonding if everyone wasn’t there.

“Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind if we can’t figure out something else.”

“Are the rest of you all right?” Allura asked, though no one else seemed to be in any pain at all, nor were any of them the bright red Pidge had become.

“The rest of us don’t burn as easily,” Lance said. “Just our pale little Scottish pixie Pidge here.”

“I’m not Scottish,” Pidge said, but was ignored. “Do I sound like Merida? No. I do not.”

“Well, you all seem to have this under control,” Allura said. “I’ll leave you to it. I hope you feel better soon, Pidge.”

“Thanks,” she said. “Like Lance said, it’ll only be a few days of pain and then I’ll be a gross reptile shedding my skin and then I’ll be back to normal.”

Allura very diplomatically hid her disgust at that description behind a well-honed mask. “If there’s anything I can do, please let me know.”

Pidge waved her water pouch and then hissed as Lance touched a particularly sensitive area.

“Sorry,” he apologized, but kept going.

“I’m excused from training, right, Shiro?” Pidge asked as Allura made her way back out into the hall, pausing to hear the answer.

“For a day or two,” Shiro allowed, “but don’t make a habit of this.”

“Oh _believe_ me,” Pidge said emphatically. “Even getting out of training is not worth this.”

Well as long as it wasn’t an intentional tactic, Allura could agree that training might be suspended for a day or two. Injuries had to be taken seriously, after all, or they might become more permanent problems and a full-body burn sounded like a pretty significant injury, even if it was only superficial.

Perhaps they would stay here for that time, since being down a Lion in battle would be inadvisable. She would just go make sure that the long range sensors hadn’t picked up any Galra ships getting too close.


End file.
